Destruction Warlock DPS Spell List and Glossary — The War Within Pre-Patch

If you are new to the Destruction Specialization, this is a great place to start reading and begin breaking down the key spells that hold together this specialization. On this page, we will discuss what abilities your specialization uses, how they influence gameplay and resource generation, and the ways they interact with each other and your cooldowns. If you have some experience with Destruction already, it is recommended you skip over this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

In order to utilize abilities more efficiently, check out the Macros section on the Addon page.

Soul Shards are the main resource of Destruction Warlocks. Each Soul Shard is made up of 10 Soul Shard Fragments. Soul Shards and Fragments are generated by your filler spells and your DoT effect, and they can be spent on an extremely powerful nuke or an AoE damage-over-time effect. You can have a maximum of 5 Soul Shards (50 Soul Shard Fragments).

Mana is a secondary resource for Destruction Warlocks. Your main spells do not cost very much Mana to cast and will never threaten your Mana pool. Utility spells, such as Demonic Gateway, and crowd control abilities, such as Fear, cost relatively more Mana than ever before, so be wary about using them too liberally.

This page lists all the different abilities available after reaching the max level. If you are still in the process of leveling, check out the Warlock Leveling page, which offers detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you choose and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.

Immolate is a damage-over-time spell that deals very high damage. It generates a Soul Shard Fragment when it ticks and additional Fragment on critical strikes. This should be applied at all times to targets who will live for 5 seconds or more.

Incinerate is your main filler. It generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on hits and 2 Soul Shard Fragments on critical strikes.

While leveling, Warlocks will learn to summon different demons, each one offering a unique set of abilities and, therefore, better suited for specific situations.

Summon Imp is the first Demon available, offering ranged attacks and a defensive dispel. It is better suited for scenarios where having an additional defensive dispel that does not come from a player is valuable and when there are frequent target swaps and a melee demon without a charge would waste precious seconds.

Summon Voidwalker is the second Demon and the first melee. Sporting high armor, Taunt, and AoE is the better option to tank damage or to deal AoE.

Summon Sayaad offers a unique debuff that increases the damage taken from the Demon by up to 10% and slows the target by 50% while also offering Seduction as an additional form of crowd control. It is best suited for PvP and for pure single-target damage.

Summon Felhunter is the only baseline pet with an interrupt and an offensive purge, making it desirable in those situations.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Unending Resolve	UR	A baseline defensive cooldown, combining damage reduction along with interrupt and silence immunity.
Fear	-	An iconic Warlock ability that allows you to disorient a target for the duration, or until they suffer enough damage to snap out of it. It has no cooldown but is limited to 1 target at any time and has a relatively high mana cost.
Curse of Weakness	CoW	Slows the target's attack speed; it is mostly useful against enemies (or classes) that hit hard with their auto attacks.
Healthstone	HS	These are unique consumables created by Warlocks that restore 25% of a target's total health with 3 charges, made using Create Healthstone or later Create Soulwell.
Health Funnel	-	This initially sacrifices player health to heal their current pet over time; it is generally used to extend the survivability of the minion while under pressure.
Drain Life	DL	Channeled spell that transfers health from the target to the player; it is, first and foremost, a defensive tool to recover health points at the expense of lower damage output.
Eye of Kilrogg	-	Summon a separate entity which the player controls instead of themselves, allowing you to remotely scout locations without putting yourself in danger.
Unending Breath	UB	Enables underwater breathing and, most importantly, increases swim speed.
Subjugate Demon	-	Take control of any non-boss Demon and use it as your main pet for its duration.
Soul Leech	-	Passive that grants an absorption shield for 8% of all single target damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of maximum player health.
Soulstone	SS	Powerful utility that can be used both preemptively and reactively to resurrect a player in combat.
Command Demon	-	Condense, in a single keybind, your Demon's most relevant active abilities: Imp: Singe Magic; Voidwalker: Shadow Bulwark; Sayaad: Seduction; Felhunter: Devour Magic.
Ritual of Doom	-	Allows you to summon a Doomguard with the aid of 4 more players.
Ritual of Summoning	-	Allows you to create a summoning stone and summon party/raid members.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Fel Domination	FelDom	Reduces the next Demon summon cast time by 6 seconds and removes the Soul Shard cost.
Demonic Circle	TP	Allows you to place a rune for 15 minutes and to teleport to that location while removing movement-slowing effects.
Burning Rush	BR	Toggled ability that provides a movement speed bonus and a minimum speed of 100% at the expense of your health as long as it is active.
Curses of Enfeeblement	CoT/CoEx	grant access to both Curse of Tongues and Curse of Exhaustion.
Howl of Terror	HoT	A disorient ability that can affect up to 5 targets within 10 yards of you. It works similarly to Fear but can hit multiple targets and is instant-cast, making it valuable in PvP.
Mortal Coil	Coil	Horrify effect that incapacitates a target for 3 seconds but above all heals you for 20% of your total health. Extremely valuable both in PvP and PvE.
Amplify Curse	-	Empowers the next curse application. Abilities that apply a curse to multiple targets will also benefit from this active.
Banish	-	Allows you to phase a Demon or Aberration out, preventing any of their actions and making them immune.
Demonic Gateway	Gate, Gateway	creates two points which players can travel between by interacting with. Players may only use the gateway once every 90 seconds.
Dark Pact	DP	Sacrifices a portion of your current health to provide a much greater shield. It can be used while crowd-controlled. Due its low cooldown and strength of the shield it is one of the main reason Warlocks are considered very durable and survivable.
Shadowfury	SF	The only AoE stun Warlocks have access to, valuable in dungeons and PvP alike.
Shadowflame	-	Offers a very strong slow in a cone in front of you.
Soulburn	Sburn	consumes a Soul Shard to enhance the next selected spell. The Drain Life and Healthstone interactions are arguably the strongest defensive options while also being the ones with the highest usability across various situations. The other choices can be equally powerful but they are answers to very specific scenarios.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Fel Pact	-	Reduces the cooldown of Fel Domination, increasing the frequency of use.
Demon Skin	-	Empowers the Soul Leech class trait offering passive generation while in combat and a maximum total shield possible.
Fel Armor	-	Empowers Soul Leech by staggering a portion of the damage received and offering passive damage reduction.
Fiendish Stride	-	Reduces the health cost of Burning Rush while also increasing the bonus movement speed.
Abyss Walker	-	Offers a very moderate damage reduction after using either Demonic Gateway or Demonic Circle.
Demonic Embrace	-	increases stamina.
Demonic Inspiration	-	Increases pet attack speed each time the Warlock generates a full shard.
Wrathful Minion	-	Provides a pet damage boost whenever the Warlock generates a full shard.
Demonic Fortitude	-	Increases the Warlock and their pet's maximum health.
Teachings of the Satyr	-	Reduces Amplify Curse cooldown.
Accrued Vitality	-	Adds a healing over time component to Drain Life.
Sweet Souls	-	Increase Healthstone heal and makes it so any party/raid member that uses one of the warlock healthstones also heal the Warlock themselves for the same amount.
Nightmare	-	Increase the amount of damage the targets will suffer before breaking from a Feared effect.
Horrify		Fear causes targets to tremble in place instead of fleeing.
Lifeblood	-	Grants the caster leech after using a healthstone.
Strength of Will	-	Increases the damage reduction component of Unending Resolve
Dark Accord	-	Reduces the cooldown of Unending Resolve.
Ichor of Devils	-	Reduces the amount of health sacrificed for the same shield value.
Frequent Donor	-	Reduces Dark Pact cooldown.
Socrethar's Guile	-	Increases Immolate damage.
Sargerei Technique	-	Increases Incinerate damage.
Dark Fury	-	Increases Shadowfury range by 2 yards and reduces its cooldown.
Swift Artifice	-	Cast time reduction on Soulstone and Create Healthstone.
Demonic Tactics	-	Passive critical strike chance and additional critical strike chance from gear rating.
Teachings of the Black Harvest	-	Enhance the pet's utility ability with a corresponding minor bonus effect.
Resolute Barrier	-	Provide cooldown reduction on Unending Resolve whenever the caster suffers damage instances greater than a percentage of their maximum health.
Fel Synergy	-	Provides constant background healing for the Warlock and their pet.
Soul Link	sl, link	Transfer a percentage of the damage taken by the Warlock to their pet instead. When using Grimoire of Sacrifice, it provides extra stamina.
Demonic Resilience	-	Reduces the chance the Warlock will be critically hit and also reduces the damage their pet takes.
Pact of Gluttony	PoG	Warlock Healthstones can be used by the caster every minute without being limited to one per combat.
Soul Conduit	SC	Gives a chance for every Shard spent to be refunded.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Chaos Bolt	CB	Single-target heavy damage ability that costs 2 Soul Shards. This damage is always a Critical Hit, and Chaos Bolt does increased damage (1% damage per 1% crit) based on your Critical Strike rating. This should be cast when you have Soul Shards available and, ideally, an active damage cooldown or proc.
Conflagrate	conf	Instant-cast spell with 2 charges. It generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments on cast and the cooldown of the charges is reduced by Haste rating.
Rain of Fire	RoF	Consumes 3 Soul Shards and deals Fire damage in an area over a period of 8 seconds (reduced by Haste).
Havoc	-	Applies a debuff on a target that replicates all single-target abilities at 60% of their original strength.
Cataclysm	cata	Ground-targeted AoE high damage spell that also applies Immolate on enemies within 8 yards.
Grimoire of Sacrifice	GoSac	Allows sacrificing the current Demon to inherit their Command Demon ability and a chance to deal additional Single Target Shadow damage on their spells.
Channel Demonfire	CDF	Cooldown-channeling ability that shoots bolts randomly at any target affected by Immolate.
Shadowburn	SBr	Single-target instant cast ability with 2 charges that has a 50% additional critical chance if the target is at 20% HP or less. It uses 1 Soul Shard, but if the target dies within 5 seconds, the Shard cost, and the charge is refunded.
Summon Infernal	infernal	Targeted ability that deals Fire damage and stuns within an AoE. Upon landing, the Infernal generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds for you. It deals damage every 2 seconds to all nearby targets, scaling with Haste. Infernal lasts 30 seconds and has a 3-minute cooldown period.
Soul Fire	SF	Single-target hard-hitting ability on a 45-second cooldown that also applies Immolate and generates 1 full shard.
Dimensional Rift	rift	Instant-cast ability that opens a random portal which does damage and generates 3 Soul Shard fragments on cast.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Backdraft	BD	Makes Conflagrate lower the cast time of your next Incinerate, Chaos Bolt, or Soul Fire.
Roaring Blaze	RB	Increases the damage of Soul Fire, Channel Demonfire, Immolate, and Incinerate dealt to the target after a Conflagrate.
Improved Conflagrate	-	Adds a third charge to Conflagrate.
Backlash	-	Passively grants increased critical strike chance and makes Physical attacks directed at you have a chance to grant a instant Incinerate cast.
Mayhem	-	Gives single-target spells a chance to apply a Havoc at reduced duration to a nearby random target.
Pyrogenics	-	Increases the Fire damage targets affected by Rain of Fire take.
Inferno	-	Rain of Fire deals increased damage and cost 2 Soul Shards.
Indiscriminate Flames	IF	Backdraft increases Chaos Bolt damage and Soul Fire Critical Strike chance.
Rolling Havoc	RH	Increases the damage you do for each spell duplicated by a Havoc effect.
Scalding Flames	ScF	Increases Immolate damage and duration.
Explosive Potential	EP	Reduces the cooldown of Conflagrate by 2 seconds.
Summoner's Embrace	SuE	Passive increase in Warlock and Pet damage.
Ashen Remains	AR	Increases Chaos Bolt and Incinerate damage on targets affected by Immolate.
Blistering Atrophy	BA	Shadowburn deals increased damage, and if the target is below the health threshold gains additional critical strike chance.
Conflagration of Chaos	CoC	Gives Conflagrate and Shadowburn a chance to guarantee the next cast to be a critical hit, dealing additional damage based on Critical Strike chance.
Emberstorm	Es	Increases the damage of all Fire spells and reduces the cast time of Incinerate.
Fire and Brimstone	FnB	Makes Incinerate hit all targets nearby for a portion of the damage.
Flashpoint	FP	Gives bonus Haste when Immolate hits a target above the Health threshold.
Raging Demonfire	RD	Increases the number of bolts fired off by Channel Demonfire, and each bolt increases the duration of every active Immolates hit.
Fiendish Cruelty	FC	Shadowburn cooldown is reduced if the target does not die within the debuff duration.
Eradication	erad	Makes Chaos Bolt apply a debuff that increases the damage taken from you for a short period of time.
Crashing Chaos	CC	Increases the damage of your next 8 of Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire after casting Summon Infernal.
Rain of Chaos	RoC	Gives each Soul Shard spent during Summon Infernal duration a chance to spawn an additional Infernal.
Reverse Entropy	RE	Gives your spells a chance to give 15% Haste for 8 seconds.
Internal Combustion	IC	Makes Chaos Bolt consume up to 5 seconds of an active Immolate to deal that damage immediately.
Demonfire Mastery	DM	Increases the damage and reduces the channeling time of Channel Demonfire.
Devastation	-	Passive Critical Strike chance increase.
Ritual of Ruin	RoR	After spending 15 Soul Shards, makes your next Rain of Fire or Chaos Bolt cost no Shards and cast 50% faster, respectively.
Ruin	-	Passive Critical Strike damage increase.
Improved Chaos Bolt	ICB	Increases the damage and reduces the cast time of Chaos Bolt.
Burn to Ashes	BtA	Increases the damage of the next two Incinerates after casting Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire.
Master Ritualist	MRi	Reduces the amount of Soul Shards required to trigger Ritual of Ruin.
Power Overwhelming	PO	Gives bonus Mastery for each individual Soul Shard spent. The additional stacks will not refresh the duration. Stacks are counted before Shard cost reduction.
Diabolic Embers	DE, embers	Doubles the amount of Soul Shard fragments generated by Incinerate.
Decimation	deci	Critical strike hits have a chance to reset the cooldown of Soul Fire and dramatically reduce its cast time.
Chaos Incarnate	CI	Increases the floor at which Soul Shard spenders are affected by Mastery. (The default is 50% of the value, and another random amount is added between 51 to 100%)
Avatar of Destruction	AoD, avatar	Summons an Overfiend, which casts several Chaos Bolts at reduced effectiveness each time Ritual of Ruin is triggered.
Dimension Ripper	DR	Gives Incinerate a small chance to open a Rift or grant a charge if talented in Dimensional Rift.
Unstable Rifts	-	Rifts will now cleave around the target for a portion of the damage.
Pandemonium	-	Increases Havoc's duration or the chance for Mayhem to trigger.
Cry Havoc	CH, cry	Makes Chaos Bolts deal a portion of AoE damage when hitting targets debuffed by a Havoc effect.
Improved Immolate	II	Increases Immolate's duration.
Decimation	-	Reduces Soul Fire's cooldown each time Incinerate and Conflagrate hits a target below half their health.
Infernal Brand	IB	Increases the damage your Infernal's Immolation will do with each Infernal melee attack on the target.
Chaosbringer	CBr	Passively increases the damage of Rain of Fire, Shadowburn and Chaos Bolt.
Grand Warlock's Design	GWD	Reduces the cooldown of Summon Infernal by 60 seconds.